AI in Tax: 240 Hours Saved, with Humans Still Reviewing | Morgan Randolph, Atlassian Global Head of Tax

Morgan Randolph, Global Head of Tax at Atlassian, joins Tax Leaders Unplugged to discuss whether AI is a threat or an opportunity for in-house tax teams. One AI-enabled workflow helped Atlassian's India tax team process thousands of airline receipts and invoices, saving 240 hours and turning a highly manual process into one that is almost instant. Morgan also shares how AI made her budget review 10 times faster and 10 times better, how her team turned a Section 382 research procedure into a working spreadsheet, and how a script removed a repetitive 25-minute step from a SOX control. In this episode: \- Why experimentation turns AI fear into excitement \- How Atlassian combines tax champions, broad tool access, workbook prototypes and a tax hackathon \- Why tax teams should start with low-hanging fruit \- Where custom tax apps create scale, version control, assurance and audit concerns \- Why human review remains essential in high-risk tax processes \- How Morgan progressed from Senior Tax Accountant to Global Head of Tax \- What mentors, honest feedback and genuine professional relationships can do for a tax career Key lessons: \- Start with a recurring manual process the team understands \- Give the whole team permission to experiment \- Use prototypes to make AI tangible \- Keep people accountable for accuracy, controls and auditability \- Design for scale before turning a personal script into a team process \- The opportunity is more proactive thinking, earlier decisions and more tax with less Excel Morgan Randolph: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-randolph-cpa-91b74428 Stevi Frooninckx: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevifrooninckx Tax Leaders Unplugged: https://podcast.loctax.com/ Loctax: https://www.loctax.com/ Resources: Atlassian ShipIt hackathons: https://www.atlassian.com/company/shipit Confluence: https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Loom: https://www.loom.com/ Claude for Excel: https://www.anthropic.com/news/advancing-claude-for-financial-services Gemini in Google Sheets: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/14356410 Accordance AI: https://accordance.com/ Alteryx: https://www.alteryx.com/ Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: Morgan Randolph, Global Head of Tax at Atlassian 04:00 AI in tax: fear, excitement and experimentation 07:30 How Atlassian organises tax transformation 09:30 Why tax leaders need to test AI themselves 10:10 How to run a tax-focused AI hackathon 15:00 Vibe coding, difficult workbooks and scaling prototypes 17:30 The workflow that saved 240 hours 19:00 Tax provision opportunities and human review 20:10 Custom tax apps, audit controls and the future of tax work 21:00 More tax and less Excel 22:30 Skills for the tax professional of the future 25:40 Four practical AI use cases 29:30 How small wins turn AI sceptics into active users 30:10 Morgan's path to Global Head of Tax 36:30 Mentorship, feedback and trust in a global remote team 44:20 Career advice: build genuine relationships